So you're excited and just found out that you can make a massive income just Blogging and posting online.
You have finally found a way to turn those hours of internet surfing into a profitable venture while doing what you love, but you don’t know how.
Fear not! Because in this article we are going to look at how we can generate a passive income with the most popular search engine and technology company Google.
Surfing the web and visiting websites daily has become a prevalent trend in the 21st century, with countless millions making real cash from online marketing and thousands upon thousands making money online with Google AdSense.
Only in 2017 alone, online advertising totaled up to $83.0 billion in revenue alone in the United States making it one of the highest revenue sources according to Wikipedia.
Most of you might already have websites or blogs, but as a digital marketer and research analyst, I feel the need that I have to help you to also make money online with Google. I'll show you a guide to guide step on how you can create your own blog, monetize it, and turn those page views to money.
Before we jump right into that, let’s go through the term Google AdSense for those of you that have less or no idea of what we are talking about.
What is Google AdSense?
Google AdSense is a Cost Per Click (CPC) advertisement program, which allows you to put advertisements on your websites, through the insertion of small HTML into your site, to display ads that are targeted to the visitors of your website, also relevant to the contents of your websites. Google AdSense is the easiest ways for bloggers and site owners to making money from Google.
How Does It Work?
I know most of you are willing to ask the question, how does Google AdSense work? Well first of all, after the HTML code is installed and activated in your website, it gives way to something called “AdSense spiders”, this crawls into your blog or site to see what your page is about. After that, it checks its database of ads and put the relevant ads near your blog posts.
This mostly makes use of the utilization of keywords, so if your blog is about clothes or fashion, and you utilize keywords under fashions and is related to fashion, it brings out advertisements of clothes, footwear etc. This means that everyone reading your website is likely to buy those fashion things I listed earlier on than buy a phone or electronics.
People who Made Money using Google AdSense in their Blogs
Some people earn thousands of dollars every day with Google AdSense. Most of them are bloggers, YouTubers, etc. But in this post, we are going to be focused mostly on blogging. So let's look at the following internet marketers/bloggers, their websites, and how much money they can earn just from Google AdSense.
Harsh Agrawal – shoutmeloud.com
Founded in 2008, Shoutmeloud is a website run by Harsh Agrawal.
It is a platform that blog owners and website runners, come to drop ideas and information on how to improve blogs and make your blog better and attractive.
Mr Harsh Agrawal calls himself a blog scientist, and his blogs have been monetized for over 6 years now.
So far, he has made a total of $41,854 for the last 6 years now only from his blogs.
Jeremy Shoemaker – shoemoney.com
Jeremy Shoemaker is a famous and well-known blogger in the world of internet marketing. His success story is one of the most astonishing one in the history of internet marketing. It started 11 years ago when he was unemployed and was in about $50,000 in credit card debt.
He started a ringtone website back then and made a huge load of cash just from Google AdSense.
He became very famous after his photo of when he was holding a cheque sent to him from Google went viral. In August 2015 alone, he made about $132,994.97 from Google AdSense. Earning money through that ringtone website was a start for Jeremy, he has made millions of dollars from both Google AdSense and affiliate marketing.
Dave Taylor – askdavetaylor.com
This is one of the best blog success stories so far. This is a proof that just with mere blogging experiences, you can reach greater heights.
While people had the passion for making profits and money from their blogs, Dave just wanted to help people with his site “Ask Dave Taylor”. His idea here was simple, every day, he asked people questions, and he provided the answers for them.
This generated a lot of traffic for Dave, and he ended up monetizing it through Google AdSense making a lot of cash.
Dave is a proof that you can turn a perfect idea to generating enough money to pay your mortgage and earn about $1,000,000 in less than a year using your blog.
How to Get Started
What you need:
- Laptop.
- An active Gmail account.
Now we have looked into the people earning this massive amount of cash off Google AdSense. Let’s go into the next phase where I teach you how you can earn massively as the above people mentioned. But first, let's talk about your niche.
To get your Adsense account approved by Google, be sure to follow these steps in order:
- Select Your Niche
- Research Your Keywords
- Set up your Blog
- Create Adsense Account
- Wait for the Google's team approval
- Place the Ads on Your Blog
- Start to earn money from pay per click advertising
1. How to Choose Your Niche
Before you can open or start your blog, you need to have a niche so, what is a niche?
A niche is a specific topic or theme that you write about. It is the main or the reason you opened the blog, for instance when you have a niche, all your posts and writings revolve around that niche.
E.g. if your niche is sports, all posts and keywords would revolve around sports mostly, if it's about fashion, all posts will reflect about fashion.
The Importance of Niches
There are many types of blogs, but it is broken into two categories: multi/general blogs and niche blogs.
Niche blogs focus on only one topic and most posts revolve around that topic. General Blogs just revolve around different topics. Examples of these blogs are lifestyle blogs which can feature technology, travel, place, food, sports etc. Niche blogs are better anyway, because:
- A niche keeps you on track.
- A niche helps grow an audience.
- A niche makes you an expert.
- A niche helps monetize your blog.
1. Evergreen Niches
Evergreen niche is a trend with everlasting appeal. This niche does not rely upon seasonal trends or things that attract readers; this is because it only provides contents that people need and desire. Another word you can use to describe this is; a post or content that lasts longer and has long-term value that even your audience tends to visit back to your posts for reference.
Examples of evergreen niches are health niches. This also can be broken down into various sub topics like – weight loss, yoga or exercise, and nutrition blog.
Pros
• Having evergreen niches shows that your blog cares about its users and it’s not just something to post but something to stay.
• If you use evergreen niche contents, there are likely chances people will keep coming back to your website.
• Evergreen contents tend to have more important link-worthiness.
• Evergreen posts can remain timely, and over time it can be edited and new information can be added and re-promoted.
• Evergreen content can influence your ranking.
Cons
• If your niche is evergreen, it can’t be too focused because the information will be outdated. Example, if you make your content too general, it lacks specific details and current facts.
2. Micro Niche
Micro niche is a type of niche that focuses on only one thing utilizing lesser and concurring keywords. You can also refer to it as a type of narrow niche. Micro niches, for example, can be about a specific kitchen appliance, probably a microwave or a toaster.
Pros
• It builds loyal readers.
• It establishes credibility.
• It is easier to earn from Google AdSense because the keywords are precise and direct.
Cons
• You have to extensively search for keywords unless it might lead to total failure of not earning from Adsense.
• Google sees micro-niche sites as the money making blogs, therefore, makes it hard for its monetization.
Note: each niche has a different Google CPC. This means that both niches have different levels of earning from Adsense.
Now that we have looked at the pros and cons of both evergreen niches and micro niches, let’s go to the next section – researching keywords for your blog.
2. Research and Get Active Keywords for Your Blog
Getting keywords for your blog post is very important because this greatly affects your SEO. Meaning the more you get an active and relevant keyword, the more your blog posts appear earlier/top when a Google search is made.
Each keyword will also have its own CPC (cost per click). The higher the CPC of a keyword is, the higher your Adsense earning would be.
Google implements a revenue-sharing system in Adsense programs. You will get a 60% revenue share of what advertisers pay (CPC) in Adwords.
There are many ways you can be able to acquire keywords for your blog both free and paid. Below we are going to look at the ways you can acquire keywords and its pros and cons.
1. Using Google Keyword Tool (free version)
The Google keyword tools is a tool used by most bloggers and business owners, to research keywords, and generate hundreds of long-tailed relevant keywords. Like we said earlier on, keywords are like the heart of the article.
They are used during the SEO optimization to make your blog posts relevant to the search engine community. It makes use of “Google Autocomplete”. Most top SEO blogs make use of Google keyword tool very well.
Pros
• It is free, and you can use it with your Google account
• It helps find about 700+ other long-tailed keywords
• It is the most accurate yet
• It is unlikely to disappoint you because it works almost 99.9% of the time
Cons
• You can’t get the full data available; it doesn’t show the competitiveness or the CPC unless you are running a campaign while logged in your Adwords
• Exact match is the only data displayed. Although this is the most accurate of choice sometimes, it doesn’t give a broad perspective to the available keywords, unless you are signed in your AdWords account
2. Using SEMRush
This is one of the best SEO keyword optimization tools. Although this platform calls itself “more than a keyword tool”, it includes position tracking, social media listening tools, backlink auditing capabilities, and competitive business intelligence data. It was founded in 2008 and since then, it has exceeded its expectations.
It has about three paid plans, but as a beginner in the blogging world, I advise you to go with the free sign up.
Pros
• It is user-friendly.
• When researching for a keyword, it gives a detailed result.
• You can be able to view the CPC in SEMRush making you know how much you can earn in Google AdSense.
• Ability to research long-tailed keywords.
• With SEMRush, you can be able to reverse engineering keyword research. To learn how to do that you can visit here.
• You can be able to view competitions and keyword data.
• It has the ability to track keywords you tell it to.
Cons
• The backlinks database is not the best out there.
• Sophisticated related keywords, unlike Google, aren’t a strength.
• It doesn’t allow you save a search for later reviewing.
• Limitations to the number of keywords you can find.
3. Using KWFinder
This is a tool just like Google keyword tool that helps find long-tailed keywords with high popularity value and low SEO difficulty.
With its user-friendly interface and its metrics, there is no doubt that this platform is good when it comes to its keyword finding.
Pros
• It is easy to use.
• It provides 3 different ways to research keyword; suggestions, autocomplete and questions.
• It gives detailed keyword research results like search volumes and trends.
• The paid version is affordable.
• You can be able to view your CPC (cost per click) and an idea of the amount you can earn from Google AdSense.
Cons
• Unlike SEMRush, you cannot compare the competitors by inserting the URLs. Most people prefer to use SEMRush because it is more extensive.
• There is no support for multi-tabbed research, unlike the SEMRush.
3. Setting Up your Own Blog
Yes, you need a web property before you can set up a Google AdSense account. A web property can be a blog or a youtube account, etc. but in this article, we will be talking about your blog.
Without a blog, Google actually doesn’t grant an AdSense to you – this is stated in their guide. After getting your blog fully functional, then only you can monetize it and start making money from it.
Setting up a blog is very easy. Now you know about Google AdSense, how to find keyword and everything about earning, the next part is getting into creating your platform. Using hosted sites is one of the easiest, cheapest and best ways as a newbie.
Hosted sites like WordPress, Blogger or Blogspot, etc, are the best so far. On more information on how to open your blog, please refer to our previous post on “Your Complete Guide on How to Start A Blog”.
4. Producing Quality Blog Contents for Easier Adsense Approval
Once you set up your blog, the next step is to replete the blog with quality contents. There are two ways of producing contents:
1. Creating contents by Yourself
Creating posts by yourself is the best way to develop your contents. This is because you can write or research things to your taste.
When creating contents, it is advisable to extensively research on what you are writing about. You can do that from the library or studying from other blogs too.
You can also refer to friendly but accurate sites. This helps broaden your knowledge about what you are writing.
2. Employing writers from 3rd party platforms
If you don’t have the gift of writing, do not worry. You can have your own blog and still get quality contents posted weekly, if not daily to your blog. Most of these third-party platforms are very safe because they tend to monitor both the freelancers and the clients to promote fair trade between them.
Examples of these third-party platforms are:
- Upwork
- Fiverr
- Freelancer.com
- Edubirdie
Fundamental Rules of SEO when Creating Blog Contents
When applying SEO in your article, there are certain rules and guides to follow to avoid being labeled as a spammer and as an opportunist. Below am going to go through on all the rules to follow when applying SEO to your contents:
1. Keyword density
Using keywords is one of the upsides to this but you have to use it to your advantage or it can turn around and be used against you. You should always be conscious of placing the keywords throughout every aspect of your articles from your headings to the conclusion.
Every content should have from 10% -15% stuffed with the keywords, at most 20%.
Remember putting ridiculous keywords can make you be seen as a spammer and search engines tend to ignore your sites. So be wise and don’t stuff your contents with keywords.
2. Duplicate Contents
Copying contents from another website can be tagged as offensive, and search engines also tend to ignore your page when that is discovered that it has been copied.
3. Link Back to Yourself
Internal linking is one of the best strategies in SEO. Nothing drives more traffics to other pages by backlinking yourself to an older post. This gives your previous posts more views and tends to increase your CPC.
4. Image Description
Search spiders only crawl on words and not photos thereby you need to insert descriptive words well beside your photos.
5. Contents
Your contents need to frequently updated and fresh. This is very important for driving in traffic.
6. Linking to Others
The best way to increase your traffic is by linking to others. This helps create relationships with them, and they sure would return the favors.
7. Social Media Linking
Another way to increase your SEO is by linking your social media accounts to your blog. This tends to help drive more traffic when your posts are regularly updated.
How to Set Up your Google Adsense Account and Start Making Money from Google
Now you have gotten your contents and blog posts, you have published them, and you want to now monetize your blog. Setting up an AdSense account for your blog can be tricky. In the Google guidance article, you are considered to be above 18 years, and creating a blog with partnership from hosted sites like blogger, WordPress will.
There are actually three or more ways to set it up.
1. Setting up your Adsense account directly
• Go to www.google.com/adsense and click on the Sign Up button
• Create a google account if you don’t have one.
• Fill in the blank spaces, submit and wait for Google for confirmation, this can take some days.
2. Setting up through Blogger
• If you blog with blogger, visit blogger.com.
• Login your blog
• Make sure you have a google account
• Go to your Blogger’s dashboard and set up your AdSense account
3. Setting up through Youtube
Most of the times, AdSense account request can be rejected from bloggers, especially if you don't create a quality blog. Google has a stringent policy when it comes to approving your account. If your blog gets rejected, you can sign up for an AdSense account easily through a youtube account.
Best Places to Put Google Ads on Your Blog
You can only put this in a few spots. The best places to put this on your page, assuming you’re getting traffic are:
- Above the header of your page
- In the content of the page itself, and
- Right next to the titles/first paragraphs of any posts
The more you use these ads, the more you’ll get paid. But remember, you are limited in the scope and placement.
Monitor the hot and cold areas of your site and figure out which works best for you.
Optimizing your Blog using SEO to Gain More Traffic
Why does SEO matter on your blog?
SEO matters so much because when applied, search engine traffic tends to drive in new visitors for you. It is very good to build up your blog and get faithful subscribers and readers but wouldn’t you want new visitors to your site?
Getting new fans of your blog is how it prospers and turning those new fans/visitors to faithful readers is the main goal of your blog.
Practicing the On-page SEO
Practicing on-page SEO is the process of optimizing individual blog pages to rank in search engines and get more loyal fans to your page. This makes use of both the contents of the webpage and the HTML: source code of the page to be SEO optimized.
Practicing the Off-page SEO
Unlike the On-page SEO, this is the steps you take to outside the peripheral of your website. This can include link building, social bookmarking and social media marketing and linking.
On more information about SEO strategy, you can refer to our previous guide.
Conclusion
Wow, we have come to the end of the journey. Running a blog and making money off from Google is very easy if you put your mind to it.
Earlier on, I thought I should share how people make cool cash from Google. This is because I want to see people make money from what they love doing, Blogging!
Also, you can feel the need that you can make more money than you expected while doing what you love. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, please comment and share it with your friends. If people can make money just posting, why can’t you?
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